As Kazakhstan Fashion Week showed class
In the countries of the former Soviet republics, the fashion industry gradually rises from his knees. Everything is clear with Ukraine - a pool of young and already reputable designers has formed here and two successful fashion weeks are taking place: Ukrainian Fashion Week with shows of Lilia Pustovit, Svetlana Bevzy and Lilia Litkovska, as well as Mercedes-Benz Kiev Fashion Days, where young people like Minochkina are shown and Kanevsky. This year Ukrainians have powerfully gone uphill, partly due to the fact that due to the difficult political situation, the attention of the entire world community has been riveted on the country. Ukrainian designers were supported by Anna Wintour, blogger Susie Bubble, Susie Menkes and others, and the special prize of the Opening Ceremony competition for young designers in the French city of Yere from Opening Ceremony went to Ukrainian Julia Efimchuk. Other countries are also catching up: yesterday, after a year’s break, the Tbilisi Fashion Week started its fashion week in Georgia. In Belarus, Belarus fashion week by Marko is shaky but shaky. And now it’s the turn of Kazakhstan, where the street style from where published, for example, the site W Magazine.
In Kazakhstan, it seems, everything is already there: the boutique Louis Vuitton, which beats regional sales records, has an area of 750 square meters, and Chanel, and Prada. The market is large, booming and rich. There is also an old, but kind Kazakhstan Fashion Week, which neither can be given for ten years. But since this season, the second fashion week has appeared - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Almaty. It was organized by the founder of Kazakhstan Fashion Institute Zhanel Bertayeva, the publisher of the Boulevard magazine Zhamilya Abilova, the photographer Yan Ray and the team of Darya Shapovalova.
When the scenario of Ukraine and Russia was repeated in Kazakhstan (now there are also two sponsor fashion weeks in the country), we had to solve the main problem: where to get the appropriate number of designers for the second fashion week, and also with a world name? The problem, as far as I could, was decided by Daria Shapovalova. To support Almaty, a whole battery of fashion insiders from behind the hill was brought: Natalie Juice, Alessandro Buzzi (Vogue Italia), editors of Ukrainian and Russian Vogue Maria Popova and Maria Tsukanova, photographers of Nabil Kenum (L'Officiel France), Adam Katz Sinding and El Mularchik . They organized a show of the British house Giles, Alexander Arutyunov, as well as the main protégé of Ukraine, Anna Kolomoets, which has been sold in Colette Paris since this season.
Many were skeptical about the launch of MBFWA. You can understand them: the prophet in our fatherland has not been observed so far, and on the Kazakh fashion scene, only a few stably strong players could be identified. I don’t even want to remember how many painful attempts to interpret our national patterns have seen the podiums. Another issue is the lack of buyers. The organizers claim that it is almost impossible to bring truly reputable experts for the premiere season. It is true: no decent buyer agrees to come without knowing what to expect. But next season we expect to see fashion director of the largest luxury retailer of China and Hong Kong Lane Crawford Sarah Rutson and Opening Ceremony main buyer Carol Song in the first row. Still, for local designers, guests of this scale are strategically a little more important than it girls from friendly countries, thousand-bloggers and contributors of legendary publications.
Kazakhstan fashion - what do we know about it? For us, the list of local fashion insiders is perceived as the names of those who were late for the flight to Sheremetyevo: Dauren Kerimkulov, Yulia Khvan, Kuat Abeshev, Liliya Rakh, Meirgul Kakimzhanova, Aygul Amirzhanova, Dilyara Aydarbekova, Asem Ospanova. It must be remembered that all these people are serious players. So, Meruert Ibrahim - the founder of the Kazakh version of Buro 24/7 - moves the country, turning it into something more than pre-crisis Moscow. Gogh Ashkenazi, an entrepreneur from Kazakhstan, is responsible for the renovated Vionnet home. Well, of course, we all know the designer Uliana Sergeenko - she hails from Ust-Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan.
Of course, MBFW Almaty is an exclusively sponsored event of the automobile concern. Not one buyer at the end of April has any funds for orders from designers from Central Asia. Buyers may come, but it will be a miracle if they make an order! This week is a springboard for young designers, an institution for the development of fashion, which is already an important work. At Fashion Week in Kazakhstan, it was surprising that there are designers in the country who are not afraid to focus on their Western colleagues and are trying to make their competitive product.
It seems that Kazakhstan has finally emerged on the fashionable map of the world, not just as some mysterious Klondike
Among the local strong players like Alima Murzabekova, Tatiana Tarverdyan and Ayazhan Zhaksybai, who shows her clothing brand Aika Alemi in the Fashion Scout showroom in Paris with the Ukrainians, it was the young designers who drew the most attention: YA & De Guise / Woodeez, The Rolly Polly and Ruslan Panama. All - participants of the small podium with a collective display.
Problems in Kazakhstan are similar to fashion weeks in Russia and the CIS: the lack of international buyers, the timing violation of shows, the presence of sponsors in the front row and styling, which is always lame, because it is not enough to find models and make-up hairdressers. The last question is directly related to the presence of good stylists in the country, with which each designer should cooperate from the preparation of the collection to the show.
Of course, now, given the wealth in Kazakhstan, designers should hope for the support of local investors, and not the phenomenon of a foreign buyer. Who knows, maybe tomorrow designers Ruslan Panama, Alima or Khan Kuchum will support the local forces and they will be bought by the largest multibrand that appeared after Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Bahrain in Kazakhstan - Saks Fifth Avenue? By the way, in the Middle East, local brands are represented in Saks Fifth Avenue. We'll see.
The greatest number of enthusiastic reviews heard Londoner with Kazakh roots Ruslan Panama. For example, Natalie Juice rushed backstage to Ruslan with congratulations. And for good reason: a graduate from Central St. Martins and Istituto Marangoni are distinguished by a perfectionist approach. Fabrics - cashmere, wool, suede - were purchased in London, and the collection in Astana was sewn with the direct participation of the designer, as well as the concept - transparent aprons with the letters "Come As You" "laid out in blue felt and the final release of the song Destiny's Child. The plans of Ruslan - participation in the London Fashion Week. Obviously, the young man was closest to the others to become the first serious designer from Kazakhstan in the history of LFW.
Another opening of the week is a 17-year-old college graduate at KazGASA, Danil "Okay" Kuchumov - founder of the label Khan Kuchum. He showed the normcore and was quoting from overseas colleagues like Hood by Air, Rick Owens and J.W. Anderson (as Juice would say later, "Anderson is not a bad reference point for a young designer"). A young age, combined with an amazing sociability and flair for the most recent trends in the near future, will surely provide him a trip to Kiev or London in the status of a guest designer. Or maybe in Milan or Rome: photos from the Khan Kuchum show have already appeared in the “Talents” section of the Italian Vogue website.
Among the participants, one can not but mention the brand Lanthane 57. Three people stand behind it: the art director of the week and the photographer Yan Ray, Sergey Maltsev and a graduate of London College of Fashion Inkar Shaimardanova. With all the simplicity of form and color (hello Jacquemus!), And a couple of unobvious stylistic decisions like candy in the mouth, each model received the fruit of joint work of young people mostly positive reviews, and the demand for the Lanthane 57 collection in the showroom that functioned during the week was higher than many others.
Light industry in the country is in a deplorable state: designers need to look for opportunities for high-grade production of orders abroad. It is hardly possible to reach the international level with a small atelier. You can and should work on this especially since there is an obvious and very large potential. It seems that Kazakhstan has finally emerged on the fashionable world map not just as some kind of mysterious Klondike, but as an original, noteworthy and able to boast talents region, where the interaction of East and West and the synergy of traditions and new trends occur in reality, not just in words.
Photo: Dastan Zhumagulov, Anvar Musrepov, Angelica Simonova, Veronika Lerner